diff --git a/src/ProtocolBuffers/FieldAccess/ReflectionUtil.cs b/src/ProtocolBuffers/FieldAccess/ReflectionUtil.cs
index 84c53e267a..92e8a07caf 100644
--- a/src/ProtocolBuffers/FieldAccess/ReflectionUtil.cs
+++ b/src/ProtocolBuffers/FieldAccess/ReflectionUtil.cs
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ namespace Google.ProtocolBuffers.FieldAccess
             // Convert the reflection call into an open delegate, i.e. instead of calling x.Method()
             // we'll call getter(x).
             Func<TSource, TResult> getter =
-                (Func<TSource, TResult>) Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<TSource, TResult>), null, method);
+                (Func<TSource, TResult>)FrameworkPortability.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<TSource, TResult>), null, method);
 
             // Implicit upcast to object (within the delegate)
             return delegate(TSource source) { return getter(source); };
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ namespace Google.ProtocolBuffers.FieldAccess
             // Convert the reflection call into an open delegate, i.e. instead of calling x.Method(y) we'll
             // call Method(x, y)
             Action<TSource, TParam> call =
-                (Action<TSource, TParam>) Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(Action<TSource, TParam>), null, method);
+                (Action<TSource, TParam>)FrameworkPortability.CreateDelegate(typeof(Action<TSource, TParam>), null, method);
 
             return delegate(TSource source, object parameter) { call(source, (TParam) parameter); };
         }
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ namespace Google.ProtocolBuffers.FieldAccess
             // Convert the reflection call into an open delegate, i.e. instead of calling x.Method(y) we'll
             // call Method(x, y)
             Func<TSource, TParam, TReturn> call = (Func<TSource, TParam, TReturn>)
-                                                  Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<TSource, TParam, TReturn>), null,
+                                                  FrameworkPortability.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<TSource, TParam, TReturn>), null,
                                                                           method);
 
             return delegate(TSource source, object parameter) { call(source, (TParam) parameter); };
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ namespace Google.ProtocolBuffers.FieldAccess
 
         public static Func<IBuilder> CreateStaticUpcastDelegateImpl<T>(MethodInfo method)
         {
-            Func<T> call = (Func<T>) Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<T>), null, method);
+            Func<T> call = (Func<T>)FrameworkPortability.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<T>), null, method);
             return delegate { return (IBuilder) call(); };
         }
     }
diff --git a/src/ProtocolBuffers/FieldAccess/RepeatedPrimitiveAccessor.cs b/src/ProtocolBuffers/FieldAccess/RepeatedPrimitiveAccessor.cs
index fd2c72b16f..0a173fea33 100644
--- a/src/ProtocolBuffers/FieldAccess/RepeatedPrimitiveAccessor.cs
+++ b/src/ProtocolBuffers/FieldAccess/RepeatedPrimitiveAccessor.cs
@@ -84,10 +84,9 @@ namespace Google.ProtocolBuffers.FieldAccess
             {
                 throw new ArgumentException("Not all required properties/methods available");
             }
-            clearDelegate =
-                (Func<TBuilder, IBuilder>) Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<TBuilder, IBuilder>), null, clearMethod);
-            countDelegate = (Func<TMessage, int>) Delegate.CreateDelegate
-                                                      (typeof(Func<TMessage, int>), null, countProperty.GetGetMethod());
+            clearDelegate = (Func<TBuilder, IBuilder>)
+                FrameworkPortability.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<TBuilder, IBuilder>), null, clearMethod);
+            countDelegate = (Func<TMessage, int>)FrameworkPortability.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<TMessage, int>), null, countProperty.GetGetMethod());
             getValueDelegate = ReflectionUtil.CreateUpcastDelegate<TMessage>(messageProperty.GetGetMethod());
             addValueDelegate = ReflectionUtil.CreateDowncastDelegateIgnoringReturn<TBuilder>(addMethod);
             getRepeatedWrapperDelegate = ReflectionUtil.CreateUpcastDelegate<TBuilder>(builderProperty.GetGetMethod());
diff --git a/src/ProtocolBuffers/FieldAccess/SinglePrimitiveAccessor.cs b/src/ProtocolBuffers/FieldAccess/SinglePrimitiveAccessor.cs
index 7d20ea756b..e52af03dce 100644
--- a/src/ProtocolBuffers/FieldAccess/SinglePrimitiveAccessor.cs
+++ b/src/ProtocolBuffers/FieldAccess/SinglePrimitiveAccessor.cs
@@ -69,9 +69,9 @@ namespace Google.ProtocolBuffers.FieldAccess
             clrType = messageProperty.PropertyType;
             hasDelegate =
                 (Func<TMessage, bool>)
-                Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<TMessage, bool>), null, hasProperty.GetGetMethod());
+                FrameworkPortability.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<TMessage, bool>), null, hasProperty.GetGetMethod());
             clearDelegate =
-                (Func<TBuilder, IBuilder>) Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<TBuilder, IBuilder>), null, clearMethod);
+                (Func<TBuilder, IBuilder>)FrameworkPortability.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<TBuilder, IBuilder>), null, clearMethod);
             getValueDelegate = ReflectionUtil.CreateUpcastDelegate<TMessage>(messageProperty.GetGetMethod());
             setValueDelegate = ReflectionUtil.CreateDowncastDelegate<TBuilder>(builderProperty.GetSetMethod());
         }
diff --git a/src/ProtocolBuffers/MessageStreamIterator.cs b/src/ProtocolBuffers/MessageStreamIterator.cs
index f5d9bcbe02..89fda91fcf 100644
--- a/src/ProtocolBuffers/MessageStreamIterator.cs
+++ b/src/ProtocolBuffers/MessageStreamIterator.cs
@@ -38,7 +38,6 @@ using System;
 using System.Collections;
 using System.Collections.Generic;
 using System.IO;
-using System.Reflection;
 
 namespace Google.ProtocolBuffers
 {
@@ -56,122 +55,45 @@ namespace Google.ProtocolBuffers
         private readonly ExtensionRegistry extensionRegistry;
         private readonly int sizeLimit;
 
-        // Type.EmptyTypes isn't present on the compact framework
-        private static readonly Type[] EmptyTypes = new Type[0];
-
         /// <summary>
-        /// Delegate created via reflection trickery (once per type) to create a builder
-        /// and read a message from a CodedInputStream with it. Note that unlike in Java,
-        /// there's one static field per constructed type.
+        /// The default instance of TMessage type used to construct builders while reading
         /// </summary>
-        private static readonly Func<CodedInputStream, ExtensionRegistry, TMessage> messageReader = BuildMessageReader();
-
+        private static readonly TMessage defaultMessageInstance = CreateDefaultInstance();
         /// <summary>
-        /// Any exception (within reason) thrown within messageReader is caught and rethrown in the constructor.
+        /// Any exception (within reason) thrown in type ctor is caught and rethrown in the constructor.
         /// This makes life a lot simpler for the caller.
         /// </summary>
         private static Exception typeInitializationException;
 
+
         /// <summary>
-        /// Creates the delegate later used to read messages. This is only called once per type, but to
-        /// avoid exceptions occurring at confusing times, if this fails it will set typeInitializationException
-        /// to the appropriate error and return null.
+        /// Vastly simplified the reflection to simply obtain the default instance and use it to construct
+        /// the weak builder while simply casting the result.  Ideally this class should have required a 
+        /// TBuilder type argument with a new() constraint to construct the initial instance thereby the
+        /// reflection could be eliminated.
         /// </summary>
-        private static Func<CodedInputStream, ExtensionRegistry, TMessage> BuildMessageReader()
+        private static TMessage CreateDefaultInstance()
         {
             try
             {
-                Type builderType = FindBuilderType();
-
-                // Yes, it's redundant to find this again, but it's only the once...
-                MethodInfo createBuilderMethod = typeof(TMessage).GetMethod("CreateBuilder", EmptyTypes);
-                Delegate builderBuilder = Delegate.CreateDelegate(
-                    typeof(Func<>).MakeGenericType(builderType), null, createBuilderMethod);
-
-                MethodInfo buildMethod = typeof(MessageStreamIterator<TMessage>)
-                    .GetMethod("BuildImpl", BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.NonPublic)
-                    .MakeGenericMethod(typeof(TMessage), builderType);
-
-                return (Func<CodedInputStream, ExtensionRegistry, TMessage>) Delegate.CreateDelegate(
-                    typeof(Func<CodedInputStream, ExtensionRegistry, TMessage>), builderBuilder, buildMethod);
+                return (TMessage)typeof(TMessage)
+                                      .GetProperty("DefaultInstance", typeof(TMessage), new Type[0])
+                                      .GetValue(null, null);
             }
-            catch (ArgumentException e)
+            catch (Exception e)
             {
                 typeInitializationException = e;
+                return default(TMessage);
             }
-            catch (InvalidOperationException e)
-            {
-                typeInitializationException = e;
-            }
-            catch (InvalidCastException e)
-            {
-                // Can't see why this would happen, but best to know about it.
-                typeInitializationException = e;
-            }
-            return null;
-        }
-
-        /// <summary>
-        /// Works out the builder type for TMessage, or throws an ArgumentException to explain why it can't.
-        /// </summary>
-        private static Type FindBuilderType()
-        {
-            MethodInfo createBuilderMethod = typeof(TMessage).GetMethod("CreateBuilder", EmptyTypes);
-            if (createBuilderMethod == null)
-            {
-                throw new ArgumentException("Message type " + typeof(TMessage).FullName +
-                                            " has no CreateBuilder method.");
-            }
-            if (createBuilderMethod.ReturnType == typeof(void))
-            {
-                throw new ArgumentException("CreateBuilder method in " + typeof(TMessage).FullName +
-                                            " has void return type");
-            }
-            Type builderType = createBuilderMethod.ReturnType;
-            Type messageInterface = typeof(IMessage<,>).MakeGenericType(typeof(TMessage), builderType);
-            Type builderInterface = typeof(IBuilder<,>).MakeGenericType(typeof(TMessage), builderType);
-            if (Array.IndexOf(typeof(TMessage).GetInterfaces(), messageInterface) == -1)
-            {
-                throw new ArgumentException("Message type " + typeof(TMessage) + " doesn't implement " +
-                                            messageInterface.FullName);
-            }
-            if (Array.IndexOf(builderType.GetInterfaces(), builderInterface) == -1)
-            {
-                throw new ArgumentException("Builder type " + typeof(TMessage) + " doesn't implement " +
-                                            builderInterface.FullName);
-            }
-            return builderType;
-        }
-
-// This is only ever fetched by reflection, so the compiler may
-// complain that it's unused
-#pragma warning disable 0169
-        /// <summary>
-        /// Method we'll use to build messageReader, with the first parameter fixed to TMessage.CreateBuilder. Note that we
-        /// have to introduce another type parameter (TMessage2) as we can't constrain TMessage for just a single method
-        /// (and we can't do it at the type level because we don't know TBuilder). However, by constraining TMessage2
-        /// to not only implement IMessage appropriately but also to derive from TMessage2, we can avoid doing a cast
-        /// for every message; the implicit reference conversion will be fine. In practice, TMessage2 and TMessage will
-        /// be the same type when we construct the generic method by reflection.
-        /// </summary>
-        private static TMessage BuildImpl<TMessage2, TBuilder>(Func<TBuilder> builderBuilder, CodedInputStream input,
-                                                               ExtensionRegistry registry)
-            where TBuilder : IBuilder<TMessage2, TBuilder>
-            where TMessage2 : TMessage, IMessage<TMessage2, TBuilder>
-        {
-            TBuilder builder = builderBuilder();
-            input.ReadMessage(builder, registry);
-            return builder.Build();
         }
-#pragma warning restore 0414
 
         private static readonly uint ExpectedTag = WireFormat.MakeTag(1, WireFormat.WireType.LengthDelimited);
 
         private MessageStreamIterator(StreamProvider streamProvider, ExtensionRegistry extensionRegistry, int sizeLimit)
         {
-            if (messageReader == null)
+            if (ReferenceEquals(defaultMessageInstance, null))
             {
-                throw typeInitializationException;
+                throw new System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException(typeInitializationException);
             }
             this.streamProvider = streamProvider;
             this.extensionRegistry = extensionRegistry;
@@ -224,7 +146,9 @@ namespace Google.ProtocolBuffers
                 {
                     if ((tag == 0 && name == "item") || (tag == ExpectedTag))
                     {
-                        yield return messageReader(input, extensionRegistry);
+                        IBuilder builder = defaultMessageInstance.WeakCreateBuilderForType();
+                        input.ReadMessage(builder, extensionRegistry);
+                        yield return (TMessage)builder.WeakBuild();
                     }
                     else
                     {